Special Educational Needs Policy

1. All students are entitled to a relevant and worthwhile education designed to enable individual students to participate fully in society.
2. Students who have special educational needs should be supported whenever necessary to gain full access to the whole school curriculum.
3. Students should have appropriate curriculum experiences designed to maximise opportunities for independent living in preparation for life after school, including preparation for work or continuing education.

All children and young people at Changing Lives Independent School have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP).

Children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty that calls for special educational provision to be made for them.

Children have a learning difficulty if they:

• Have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age.
• Have a disability that prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority.
• Are under compulsory school age and fall within the definitions above or would so do if special educational provision was not made for them.

Children must not be regarded as having a learning difficulty solely because the language or form of language of their home is different from the language in which they will be taught.

This SEND policy details how this school will do its best to ensure that the necessary provision is made for any pupil who has special educational needs and those needs are made known to all who are likely to teach them. All pupils who come to Changing Lives Independent School have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP). The school will use its best endeavours to ensure that teachers in the school are able to identify and provide for those pupils to join in the activities of the school, so far as is reasonably practical and compatible with the child receiving the special educational provision and the efficient education of the pupils with whom they are educated.

The school will have regard to the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice when carrying out its duties toward all pupils with special educational needs and ensure that parents are notified of a decision by the school that SEN provision is being made for their child.

Partnership with parents plays a key role in enabling children and young people with SEND to achieve their potential. The school recognises that parents hold key information and have knowledge and experience to contribute to the shared view of a child’s needs and the best ways of supporting them. All parents of children with special educational needs will be treated as partners and supported to play an active and valued role in their children’s education.

The process for contact with parents in respect of students who have special educational needs will be:

1. The SENDCo to discuss with parents their child’s needs and appropriate provision.
2. Parental participation in the scheduled cycle of reviews of their child.
3. The SENDCo will initiate additional meetings, where appropriate, when there may be a concern over the student’s progress.
4. The SENDCo to meet with parents where a request for formal assessment is to be made.
5. In addition to the reviews/parents' consultation evenings, parents will be participants in a scheduled EHCP Annual Review meeting.

Students at Changing Lives are encouraged to take part, voice opinion and take responsibility for their own learning. Children and young people with special educational needs often have a unique knowledge of their own needs and their views about what sort of help they would like to help them make the most of their education will be ascertained. They will be encouraged to participate in all the decision-making processes and contribute to the assessment of their needs, the review and transition processes.

The school’s headteacher and all other members of staff have important day-to-day responsibilities. All teachers are teachers of children with special educational needs. Teaching such children is therefore a whole school responsibility. At the heart of the work of every class is a continuous cycle of planning, teaching and assessing which takes account of the wide range of abilities, aptitudes and interests of children. The majority of children will learn and progress within these arrangements. Special individual arrangements may be necessary for some children.

The school will assess each child’s current levels of attainment on entry in order to ensure that they build upon the pattern of learning and experience already established during the child’s previous schools to:

• Provide starting points for the development of an appropriate curriculum.
• Identify and focus attention on action to support the child within the class.
• Use the assessment processes to identify any specific learning difficulties.
• Ensure ongoing observation and assessment provide regular feedback about the child’s achievements and experiences to form the basis for planning the next steps of the child’s learning.
• Involve parents in implementing a joint learning approach at home.

The school will record the steps taken to meet the needs of individual children. The SENDCo will have responsibility for ensuring that the records are kept and available as needed.

The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENDCo) is Nicola Smith. She has responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the SEND policy.

The SENDCo responsibilities may include:

• Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the school’s SEND policy.
• Coordinating provision for children with special educational needs.
• Liaising with and advising teachers.
• Overseeing the records of all children with special educational needs and liaising with parents of children with special educational needs.
• Contributing to the in-service training of staff.
• Informing employees of any student’s special needs and any changes that arise over the academic year.
• Regularly reviewing and monitoring SEND provision within the school.
• Arranging and conducting review meetings for students with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP), liaising with parents, the LA and other support agencies involved in the educational welfare of these students.
• Liaising with external agencies including the LA’s support and educational psychology services, health and social services, and voluntary bodies.

The SENDCo and the child’s class teacher will decide on the action needed to help the child to progress in the light of their earlier assessment. This may include:

• Different learning materials or special equipment.
• Some group or individual support.
• Extra adult time to devise the nature of the planned intervention and to monitor its effectiveness.
• Staff development and training to introduce more effective strategies.
• Access to LA support services for one-off or occasional advice on strategies or equipment.

Strategies employed to enable the child to progress will be recorded within an Individual Education Plan (IEP).

The IEP will include information about:

• The short-term targets set for the child.
• The teaching strategies to be used.
• The provision to be put in place.
• When the plan is to be reviewed.
• Outcomes (to be recorded when IEP is reviewed).

The IEP is a personalised plan which will focus upon several individual targets that match the child’s needs and have been discussed with the child and the parents/carers. Wherever possible, the child will also take part in the review process and be involved in setting the targets.

An Education Health Care Plan will include:

• The pupil’s name, address and date of birth.
• Details of all of the pupil’s special needs.
• Identification of the special educational provision necessary to meet the pupil’s special educational needs.
• Identification of the type and name of the school where the provision is to be made.
• Relevant non-educational needs of the child.
• Information on non-educational provision.

An EHC plan will be tailored to meet the particular needs of each child. The EHC plan will include information about the child and the support that is needed to help them achieve. All children with Education Health Care Plans will have short-term targets set for them that have been established after consultation with parents, the child and other agencies as appropriate.

All plans will be reviewed at least annually with the parents/carers, the pupil, the LA, the school and professionals involved invited to consider whether any amendments need to be made to the description of the pupil’s needs or to the special educational provision specified in the plan. The annual review will focus on what the child has achieved as well as on any difficulties that need to be resolved.

At the review in Year 9, the aim is to give clear recommendations as to the type of provision the child will require at the post-school stage. It will then be possible for the parents to visit post-school placements and to consider appropriate options within the similar timescales as other parents.

The information in this policy is taken from Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.

The SENDCo operates an ‘open door’ policy for parental participation in all aspects of their child’s education. Parents are encouraged to telephone the SENDCo at any time if they have anything that they wish to discuss.

Changing Lives Independent School considers that all parents are partners and are welcome to query decisions made by the school through the designated channels as laid down in other school policies.